


Bonding a Triad

by Kaerith



Series: The Trial of Bonding [4]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Happy Ending, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:35:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29202198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaerith/pseuds/Kaerith
Summary: Eskel, Julian, and Geralt didn't think that a third could be brought into Eskel and Julian's bond, but tragic events force their hand to try.
Relationships: Eskel/Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Series: The Trial of Bonding [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1759012
Comments: 14
Kudos: 64





	Bonding a Triad

**Author's Note:**

> There was supposed to be a segment before this about G,E, & J fucking their way to Oxenfurt and then E & G being bad-ass fucking witchers on the Path together, but I never got around to writing all the porn. So this takes place a few years after the last installment when they have settled into a stable and dependable relationship.

Yennefer was with Roach when Geralt returned to the horse with the nightwraith's head. 

"Eskel and Julian need you right now," she said, making Geralt's body begin to tremble with a purely imagined chill. "Triss is holding them together, but she needs your help." 

Geralt tossed the severed head away without a thought to the large bounty he had been thinking of a moment before. "Please take me?" 

Triss had Eskel naked on a bed. Julian was huddled next to him, wrapped in a blanket with a tear-stained face and hollow, fearful eyes as he clutched his Bonded's hand. Some life and hope invigorated his demeanor when he recognized Geralt. "Geralt!" He freed one hand to wave it desperately at Geralt. The white-haired witcher grabbed it while his gaze catalogued Eskel's injuries. 

"Two royal wyverns," Triss said, though Geralt had already identified the rancid scent of their venom. 

"Two?!" Geralt's heart lurched at Eskel's bad luck. That species was extraordinarily vicious, and two individuals could hardly interact peaceably for longer than it took to mate. 

Yennefer's magic manifested a visual representation of the soulbond between Eskel and Julian. Eskel's end was weak and fluttering and leeching strength quickly from Julian. "We can sever the bond," Yennefer said. "Save Jaskier." 

Both the bard and the conscious witcher snarled "No!" 

"Is there a way I can help strengthen Julian or anchor Eskel?" Geralt asked. 

Triss looked intrigued. "Are you suggesting a three-way soulbond? That's never been done. There would be no balance." 

Yennefer disagreed. "Magic has a lot of meaning and strength in threes," she argued. "It would be a long shot, but we might be able to pull it off." 

"I would need to know more about the witchers' bonding ritual," Triss said. 

"Three portals are my limit," Yennefer said. "If I go to Kaer Morhen I may need time to recoup my energies." 

Geralt lost interest in the sorceresses debating details and joined Julian next to the bed. "You should lie down," he said. 

"I'm fine," the companion said stubbornly. "Frightener's Vision and Koshchey's Core," he added. 

Those phrases piqued something in Geralt's memory. He made a movement to catch the sorceress' attention before he asked Julian, "What did you say?" 

"Frightener's Vision and Koshchey's Core," Julian repeated dully. "Those were the mutagenic decoctions they used to make me Eskel's companion, along with his blood." 

"I've heard of Frightener's Vision," Yennefer said. "I cannot recall ever learning its ingredients." 

"I do," Julian said. "You said you needed to know about the Trial of Bonding." 

"Why would you know the ingredients for two forgotten decoctions?" Yennefer said. 

"I memorize things. It hurt, so I asked questions about the process, and then made a poem to keep my mind busy: "Triangles doubled, then halved and quartered, it is a mutation spell. What effects can I expect as my body's remade and hurts like hell? Dagobert's folly, the voracious viy with its vitriolic eye, Sulfuric yellow and rebis green, lemon-lime not the potion's hue, I writhe in pain, pray not to die, as my veins take in the poison blue. The heart of the monster Fregenal made, ever pumping with its blood, Mix-ed in with aether and hydrogenum added in parts of two, I'll withstand the fear of death, held and fortified by my lover true." 

Julian rattled off the poem without any pauses, his senses still tuned to his injured Bondmate. He eventually noticed the stunned silence and looked up to see his audience's confusion. "Frightener's Vision: frightener's eye, vitriol, rebis, and quebrith. I know it's confusing 'cause both vitriol and quebrith contain sulfur, so you may have thought that the potion only required one or the other, but it does need both. Dagobert Something-or-other was the mage who created the first frightener, which seems like a giant weird bug-thing from what I read later. Koshchey's Core uses a heart of a koshchey, aether, and two parts hydrogenum. I never found out what a koshchey is, except another type of monster made by another crazy mage named Frenegal. Why did ancient wizards create so many monsters?" 

"And the spell was Triangle Within A Triangle?" Triss asked, looking thoughtful and impressed. 

Julian hummed. "A variation. Something about not needing to create actual mass, just channeling magic for mutations to happen." 

"He is a professor," Geralt said with a shrug when the women looked to him for his opinion. 

"All seven of the ploughing Liberal Arts," Julian muttered. "Everybody I meet who isn't another individual mutated by magic actually _believes_ that I am intelligent." 

There was a long muttered debate between the two women as they discussed the Triangle spell and the potions and creating a bond. Triss finally ended it with, "Without either of the rare ingredients it's all just hypothetical." 

"Vesemir might know where to get them," Geralt said. It was a long shot, but there were catacombs near Kaer Morhen where abominations had been left to dwell specifically because of the potion ingredients they would provide for the concoctions needed for witcher trials. 

"I can send Vesemir a letter," Triss said, grabbing parchment and quill. "I will tell him our problem and ask if he has any ideas, as well as outline our idea of adding a third to their bond." 

Yennefer bent over her shoulder. "I will open a portal in... two hours after the letter is delivered. Just a small one, so he can send through a response. In the kitchen; he and Kalina spend their evenings there." 

Geralt saw Julian's eyes were closed. He shook the bard gently, who just cracked his eyes open and scowled at him. "Just tired," he said, and yawned. 

"Go ahead and sleep, Jaskier," Triss said. Geralt gave the companion more help than he needed in settling himself in the bed next to Eskel. 

After magicking the letter to Vesemir, Triss focused on the stream of energy shared between Eskel and Julian. "I'm going to decrease the amount that Jaskier is giving him," she said, her hands hovering over them with green light. "Let Eskel take only as much as he needs to keep him stable until we figure out what we are going to do." 

"Why?" Geralt asked, wanting to know if he should be arguing with her for Eskel's sake. 

"If Jaskier is going to do the soulbonding with you then he needs to remain as strong as he can." 

"You can't use me?" Geralt said, upset at the thought of making Julian go through the pain of the Trial of Bonding again without a guarantee that it would even work. "I thought I would be the one to do it!" 

Yennefer put a hand on his arm. "The companion needs to be the focus. The magic won't work on you. Witchers are... greasy when it comes to spells; most magics tend to slip right off of you or be very weak if they penetrate your energy at all." 

When the two-hour mark hit, Yennefer created a portal and two bottles and a book were pushed through. Yennefer picked up the book while Geralt held the dusty vials to a lantern. 

"It's an eyeball," he said. 

"He strongly advises us not to attempt it," Yennefer says. "But Kalina insisted that he pass on the eye and a completed mixture of Koshchey's Core. This book has hand-written notations about how they adapted Triangle Within A Triangle for the procedure." 

Julian sat up. "Kalina sent us what we need?" 

"Yes," Yennefer said, hiding her surprise that he was awake and aware. "Vesemir thinks trying this will kill you and Eskel and maybe Geralt as well." 

"If Kalina thinks it will work, then we should try it," Julian said, resolute. "She knows more about all the potions and decoctions than any of the witchers themselves." 

"Julian," Geralt said, walking over and kneeling next to him. "If you don't want to do this you don't have to." 

Julian's eyes softened. "Both of us would like to have you join our Bond. And if it is our best chance at saving Eskel we need to try." 

"But it's tort-" 

Julian put his fingers over Geralt's lips and rolled his eyes. "I have fifty more years of life experience than I did when I went through it the first time. Plus, I was a dramatic little fuck. I doubt it will be as bad as I thought it was. Even if it is, it is worth it. I love you, and I also love him." 

There was a flurry of well-conducted activity as Yennefer and Triss nailed out the details of the procedure and assembled the tools the needed to inject the decoctions into Jaskier's veins. Geralt prepared the potions with the proper alchemical ingredients and means of compounding and heating. In less than an hour they were in their places ready to begin. Everyone was nervous and hopeful except for Eskel, who was still unconscious. 

Geralt and Julian had a tube connecting their arms, though Geralt's blood was being held back from flowing into Julian yet with a piece of twine. There was another hollow needle attached to another tube of sheep intestine that was ready for the first decoction to pour into Julian's vein, and the same needle and tube would have to do for the second potion. Triss monitored the soul bond already in place, and Yennefer would do the magic required to mutate Julian's body once again to accept Geralt's blood. 

Geralt just had to hold Julian's hand when he could, get the blood and potions to go into Julian, and meditate enough during the process to keep his pulse matching Julian and Eskel's so that the bard's heart didn't pull itself apart trying to integrate two vastly different rhythms. 

Jaskier had to survive the experience. "Doesn't sound too hard, " he joked back to Yennefer, but they could all see his fear. He wasn't afraid of pain, though; he felt the onus of being the most important link in the chain to keep Eskel alive. He was also the link that would have the most strain. 

The process wasn't as tortuous as Geralt had dreaded. Julian was pale and sweating and nauseous but held both witcher's hands and even sang through the easiest waves of pain. It took two hours for the decoctions to drain, and Triss kept insisting that Geralt drink and take bites of liver throughout the process. The witcher didn't think the precautions were necessary at all-- he had bled much more for much longer-- but he capitulated because it was free beer and Julian kept complaining loudly and making faces about the liver and Geralt enjoyed the bard's theatrics. Particularly when he told Triss he would prefer to eat it raw if she could just cut it into chunks for him because he didn't have two free hands and Julian had to beg dramatically for a bucket because he was positively going to puke his guts out. (He didn't.) 

When Yennefer said that Geralt could stop the blood transfusion, Julian perked up. "I was a wimp as a child!" He marveled. "Really, I have had worse hangovers! Are you sure you did the magic right?" He teased Yennefer, who scowled and berated him for the insult. 

After Geralt had bandaged Julian's wounds, the companion laid back and pulled Geralt fully onto the bed so that he was bookended by his two witchers. Julian squeezed the white wolf's hand. "Keep focusing on your pulse and just wait for the magic. If our hearts are already synchronized, it may be more subtle than when Eskel and I Bonded." 

Julian soon dozed off with his head against Geralt's shoulder. Geralt's thoughts bounced between concern for Eskel and Julian and a tremendous, tremulous hope that a soul bond would form. He kept his eyes closed and the rush of his breath and blood constant. 

"It's happening!" Triss said, sounding pleased. "Jaskier, Geralt, want to see?" 

Her hands spun a vision of magic and light that showed the soul bond between Eskel and Julian's bodies and spirits reaching out toward a new brightening star of light that hovered over Geralt's physical form. Thick bands popped into existence in their vision as Geralt felt his organs flutter in his chest before their natural processes almost redoubled with a sense of purpose. 

"You feel it, right?" Julian said, his voice tripping along the verge of laughter with a euphoria that Geralt suddenly felt. Geralt knew he was grinning wide with rush of unfamiliar sensations, but for once didn't spare a thought of how he must have looked as he smiled. 

He put a hand to his chest, like he could feel the abundance of emotion bursting through. It wasn't that he could feel Julian's emotions or thoughts-- it was just an indescribable warmth of knowledge that he wasn't alone anymore. He could feel his heart beat and also sense the echo of Julian's. "I don't feel Eskel," he said, worried but not upset. 

"You're ready for that?" Triss asked. Then, she rolled her eyes with a fond expression. "Of course Geralt is: you wouldn't ever deny being ready for anything. But, Jaskier, are you ready? Do you feel stable?" 

"You never could block our bond completely," Julian chided. "Let go, Triss." 

It seemed to be a literal command, because the sorceress did open up her hand and they could all see the links between Eskel and Julian and Geralt flare open. Geralt could feel Eskel then, sudden as an explosion and as awesome as one of those Zerrikanian fire blossoms that flashed colors into the night sky. Geralt could also feel the strain of energy being pulled from his body to heal Eskel's. He didn't think Julian had the capacity to have healed Eskel as much as he needed. 

"It's mostly your energy," Triss said to Geralt as Julian focused on Eskel's closing wounds. 

Yennefer moved behind Triss to put her hands on the redhead's shoulders. "We're done. Let's get some rest." 

Triss let her magic dissipate, but Geralt could still feel the soul bonds even if they weren't visible. Yennefer gave him a wink as she turned Triss and pushed her toward the door. 

Eskel started twitching as soon as the door closed behind the women. "Can't keep him down for long!" Julian said, turning back to share his jubilation with Geralt. He grabbed Geralt's face and gave him a kiss. "Can you feel us?" 

Geralt stated into Julian's bright blue eyes and nodded. He felt stunned and speechless. Eskel was there, in his blood and bones, along with Julian. His mouth opened. "My companion." Maybe Geralt did have words, after all. Was that even his voice? He couldn't tell. 

"My witcher. My Geralt. You're in my blood now, as well as in my heart, darling." 

Geralt pressed his brow against Julian's and shut his eyes so he could focus on the bright sense of him. "Does it always feel like this? Will it fade?" 

Julian's hands were still gently framing his face, and he swept his fingertips up into Geralt's hair. "No amount of distance will strain it. Serious injuries may weaken it, but not even death will break it. I can't imagine anything strong enough to take down all three of us before at least one of us can save the others." 

Geralt agreed. The bond between witcher and companion merged their life forces and multiplied the energy of their spirits. The three of them connected might have an exponentially enormous pool of energy to keep them connected and renew each other's strength and health. Geralt felt invincible. He had caught a glimpse of Eskel's grievous injuries healing practically instantly after Triss had let the bond go. 

"Julian? Y' better be smooching Geralt and not some random old women." 

Geralt reached blindly past Julian to poke Eskel and apparently his hand found Eskel's face first because three of his fingers were pinched between teeth. 

Julian withdrew away from the ensuing scuffle and looked at his witchers. Geralt, at least, was playing gentler than usual. 

Eskel finally beat Geralt into submission, but only because he wasn't putting up much of a fight. "We at Triss'? How bad was I wounded this time?" 

Julian crossed his arms and glowered. "Two fucking royal wyverns?" 

Eskel winced. "In my defense, the second one was a total surprise." 

"The venom wouldn't have been a problem if you had your potions and weren't mauled, you godsdamned pustulous pap-sack of a dissolute nanny goat!" 

Eskel shook his head. "I don't even know what all those words mean," he whispered to Geralt. "That's when I know he's really angry." 

Julian turns red and resorts to violence, punching the witcher in the leg. "You almost fucking died!" 

Eskel finally seems to understand the depth of shit he's in. Geralt isn't here because they had lucked out to be in the same place at the same time, and his companion wasn't just blowing off steam so dramatically to be funny. His eyes go wide. "Shit. Fuck, Jules, I didn't think they got me that bad." Julian bursts into tears and Eskel opens his arms in time to catch him as he practically dives onto the bed. 

Julian clumsily smacks Eskel on the arm. "Don't call me that, you dickhead." His face is pressed against Eskel's bare chest, and his tears and snot are dampening the bandages that are still stained with blood. Eskel tries to sooth his companion but gives Geralt a questioning look. _That bad?_ He seems to ask, and Geralt nods with a serious face to convey the message of, _Bad_ and doesn't add any smirk or twinkle of his eye to add any humor to his response. 

_Fuck_ , Eskel thinks, and he takes a look around to see the used gauze and stitches he needs to pull out of new, now-healed scars and winces at the basin of blood-tinged water and rags before he turns his head to the other side of the room where he sees the improvised set up of empty flasks and limp, stained tubing. He then notices the bandages on Julian's arm, and his eyes are stormy with confusion and grief when he looks back at Geralt. 

"Triss had to limit the transfer of energy you were getting from Julian to try to heal you. You would have killed him if she hadn't," Geralt says. 

"What is that shit, then?" Eskel asks, lifting an arm to point at the ad hoc Trial of Bonding set-up. 

Geralt is about to answer but Julian sits up and distracts them. "Figure it out." The bard wipes his face and gets off the bed to get his shirt from where it hung over a chair and pulls it on. Eskel watches him, but his gaze is mostly turned inward and it doesn't take him more than two heartbeats for his eyes to lock onto Geralt's in surprise. 

Despite the fear of how close to death both Eskel and Julian were hours earlier, Geralt can't stop himself from smiling and only has a second or two to hope until Eskel grins back at him. 

This time, when Eskel pulls Geralt close there isn't anything but joy in the gesture. Eskel kisses him and Geralt presses back, greedy and unashamed. 

When Eskel pulls away to catch his breath he is beaming, his delight too much to be tempered down by his regret at having nearly killed himself. "How the fuck did you wonderful bastards do it?" 

Julian's still not over his pique of irritation, but his faltering scowl can't restrainhis relief and happiness. "Geralt had to save our arses with Yennefer and Triss' help." 

"Vesemir and Kalina, too," Geralt added. "Julian remembered a lot about what the Trial of Bonding needed, but Vesemir was able to provide the rare ingredients and Kalina sent notes so that Triss and Yen could duplicate the process." 

"How bad was it? It was dangerous and painful, right?" 

"It was easy. Sang the whole time. I think all the stupid in your blood was what made me so sick the first time around," Julian said blithely. 

"Maybe the martyr tendencies in Geralt made it so painless," Eskel joked back. But his eyes asked Geralt for the truth. 

"It wasn't bad. He really did sing. The nausea seemed to be the worst part," Geralt confirmed. "Only took maybe three hours?" He shrugged, not certain about the time. 

Eskel looked between them both, his amber eyes dark as he let the levity go and settled into the responsibility of making them undertake such a risky procedure. "I'm truly sorry that I got so injured, but I have to say that I can't regret the outcome." He locked eyes with Geralt, that awe dawning in them again. "You're a part of us, now. In all ways." 

"For always," Julian added, taking Eskel's hand and joining them again on the bed.


End file.
